Corporate tax outcomes are decided by structure — how the business is built, how deals are shaped, how profits move — long before any return is filed. Connaught Law's corporate tax lawyers advise companies and their owners on structuring, transactions and HMRC disputes, with the legal rigour tax planning needs to survive scrutiny.
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How We Can Help
Corporate Structuring
The structure question — company, group, LLP, where each entity sits and how profits flow — shapes the corporation tax position for years. We advise on incorporations and group structures, reorganisations and demergers done within the reliefs, and the clean-ups that untangle structures built ad hoc — always with the anti-avoidance rules in view, because a structure that only works until HMRC looks at it doesn't work.
Transactions & Deals
Tax terms decide who really gets what in a deal: share versus asset sales, warranties and tax covenants, clearances sought before signing rather than arguments after. We advise on acquisitions, disposals and investment rounds alongside the corporate legal work — one team on the deal, with the tax analysis built into the drafting instead of bolted on.
Corporate Property Tax
Property and tax meet constantly in corporate life: SDLT on acquisitions and group transfers, VAT and the option to tax on commercial buildings, structures for development and investment holdings, and the annual charges on enveloped dwellings. Working alongside our real estate team, we structure property transactions so the tax result is designed, not discovered.
Owner-Managers & Exit
For owner-managed businesses the corporate and personal positions are one system: extraction by salary, dividend or otherwise; share incentives that recruit and retain; succession into the family or management; and exits shaped for the capital gains reliefs that reward planning done early. The best exit tax planning starts years before the sale — that's when to talk to us.
HMRC Enquiries & Disputes
When HMRC opens an enquiry, the early moves matter: what's disclosed and how, which positions are defended and which conceded, and whether resolution comes by correspondence, settlement or the tribunal. We handle corporate enquiries, assessments and appeals with a litigator's discipline — and where disputes escalate, our litigation team is the same firm, not a referral.
International & Cross-Border
Overseas businesses entering the UK and UK businesses expanding out face the cross-border layer: permanent establishment risk, residence, withholding, transfer pricing basics and treaty relief. We advise inbound investors — often alongside our business immigration team on the people side — so the corporate structure and the move into the UK are planned as one.
How We Work
We advise as lawyers: analysis grounded in the legislation and case law, positions you can defend if tested, and legal professional privilege where it properly applies. We work alongside your accountants rather than instead of them — they run the numbers and compliance; we handle the structural, contentious and transactional questions where legal judgement earns its keep.
Why Connaught Law
01Structure before filingThe tax result is designed at the structuring stage — we get involved when it can still be shaped.
02Deal-ready tax counselClearances, covenants and warranties drafted into the deal — not discovered after signing.
03Senior attention throughoutYour matters are handled by our experienced tax team directly — with the corporate, property and litigation specialists down the hall.
04Defensible, alwaysPlanning that survives an HMRC enquiry is the only planning worth paying for. That's our standard.
Fee structures are set out on our fees page — scoped and agreed before each piece of work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a tax lawyer or an accountant?
Usually both, for different jobs: accountants handle computation, returns and ongoing compliance; tax lawyers handle structure, transactions, disputes and the questions where legal analysis — and legal privilege — matter. On deals and HMRC disputes especially, the legal layer is where value is protected. We work with your accountant, not around them.
When should tax advice come into a business sale?
Ideally years before it — key capital gains reliefs and clean structures reward advance planning — and unavoidably at the deal itself, where share-versus-asset choices, tax warranties and covenants allocate real money between buyer and seller. The most expensive time to first think about tax is after heads of terms are signed.
What should we do when HMRC opens an enquiry?
Take advice before responding — the early correspondence sets the enquiry's shape, and both over-disclosure and obstruction carry costs. A managed response answers what's asked, protects privileged analysis, and positions the strongest issues for settlement or appeal. Enquiries handled well close quietly; handled badly they metastasise.
Can you help an overseas company setting up in the UK?
Yes — entity choice and registration, corporation tax and VAT footing, property, employment and the sponsor licence and visas for the team moving here, coordinated as one project. Inbound expansion touches half the firm's specialisms; that's precisely why it suits a firm that has them under one roof.
Structuring, selling or facing HMRC?
Tell us the business and the question. We'll give you the legal tax analysis — defensible, deal-ready and in plain English — before you commit to anything.
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